A concise, beginner-friendly introduction to quantum field theory Quantum field theory is a powerful framework that extends quantum mechanics in ways that are essential in many modern applications. While it is the fundamental formalism for the study of many areas of physics, quantum field theory requires a different way of thinking, and many newcomers to the subject struggle with the transition from quantum mechanics. A Prelude to Quantum Field Theory introduces the key concepts of quantum field theory in a brief and accessible manner while never sacrificing mathematical rigor. The result is an easy-to-use textbook that distills the most general properties of the theory without overwhelming beginning students with more advanced applications. Bridges quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, emphasizing analogies and differences Emphasizes a "quantum field theoretical mindset" while maintaining mathematical rigor Obtains quantum fields as the continuum limit of a quantized system of many particles Highlights the correspondence between wave function-fundamental in quantum mechanics-and the formalism of second quantization used in quantum field theory Provides a step-by-step derivation of Feynman rules for the perturbative study of interacting theories Introduces students to renormalization, path integrals techniques, and more Discusses more modern topics like effective field theories Ideal for both undergraduate and graduate students Proven in the classroom

SS Obersturmfuhrer Paul Meissner arrives in Auschwitz from the Russian front. After being badly wounded he is fit only for administrative duty and his first and most pressing task is to improve flagging camp morale.

He sets up a chess club which thrives, as the officers and enlisted men are allowed to gamble on the results of the games. However, when Meissner learns from a chance remark that chess is also played by the prisoners he hears of a Jewish watchmaker who is 'unbeatable'.

Meissner sets out to discover the truth behind this rumour and what he finds will haunt him to his death...

Can you ever forgive the unforgivable? In 1962, Emil Clement comes face to face with Paul Meissner at a chess tournament in Holland. They haven't seen one another in almost two decades. Clement, once known only as The Watchmaker, is a Jewish former inmate of Auschwitz. Whilst there, he was forced to play chess against Nazi guards. If he won, he could save a fellow prisoner's life; if he lost, he would lose his own. Meissner, a soft-spoken priest, was also at Auschwitz. He was the SS Officer who forced The Watchmaker to play...

A concise, beginner-friendly introduction to quantum field theory Quantum field theory is a powerful framework that extends quantum mechanics in ways that are essential in many modern applications. While it is the fundamental formalism for the study of many areas of physics, quantum field theory requires a different way of thinking, and many newcomers to the subject struggle with the transition from quantum mechanics. A Prelude to Quantum Field Theory introduces the key concepts of quantum field theory in a brief and accessible manner while never sacrificing mathematical rigor. The result is an easy-to-use textbook that distills the most general properties of the theory without overwhelming beginning students with more advanced applications. Bridges quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, emphasizing analogies and differences Emphasizes a "quantum field theoretical mindset" while maintaining mathematical rigor Obtains quantum fields as the continuum limit of a quantized system of many particles Highlights the correspondence between wave function-fundamental in quantum mechanics-and the formalism of second quantization used in quantum field theory Provides a step-by-step derivation of Feynman rules for the perturbative study of interacting theories Introduces students to renormalization, path integrals techniques, and more Discusses more modern topics like effective field theories Ideal for both undergraduate and graduate students Proven in the classroom

Located in the crowded center of seventeenth-century London, the rough community of Coleman Street Ward was a hotbed of political and religious unrest. There among diverse and contentious groups of puritans a seething republican underground developed as the political means to a more perfect Protestant Reformation. But while Coleman Street has long been recognized as a crucial location of the English Revolution, its importance to events across the Atlantic has yet to be explored. In Fire under the Ashes, John Donoghue recovers the lasting significance of the radical ideas of Coleman Street Ward by exploring their wider Atlantic history and revealing how republican radicals redefined themselves against the emergent economy of empire. While some prominent revolutionaries led England's imperial expansion by investing deeply in the slave trade and projects of colonial conquest, other Coleman Street puritans crossed and recrossed the ocean as colonists and revolutionaries, circulating new ideas about the liberty of body and soul. These radicals promoted social justice as the cornerstone of a republican liberty opposed to both political tyranny and economic slavery, and their efforts, Donoghue argues, provided the ideological foundations for the abolitionist movement that swept the Atlantic world over a century later.